Sport

The planned tour of England by an all-white Springbok cricket team in 1970 sparked widespread protest. The photograph shows an AAM delegation at Lord’s cricket ground to present a petition to a meeting of the Test and County Cricket Board asking it to cancel the tour. Left to right: Chris de Broglio from the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC), Labour MP James Dickens, AAM staff member Alan Brooks and AAM EC member Vella Pillay. After a campaign involving threats of direct action from Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) and mass protests co-ordinated by the AAM, the tour was cancelled in May 1970.

Peter Hain at a press conference called by the Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) campaign on 7 March 1970. The planned tour of England by an all-white Springbok cricket team in 1970 sparked widespread protests. After a campaign involving threats of direct action from STST and mass protests co-ordinated by the AAM, the tour was cancelled in May 1970. Left to right: Jeff Crawford, Secretary of the West Indian Standing Conference, England cricketer Mike Brearley, STST member Mike Craft and STST Chair Peter Hain.

In 1970 Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) threatened to disrupt the South African cricket Springbok tour of England and Wales. This leaflet made the case for boycotting the all-white South African team. As a result of the STST campaign, and the opposition mobilised by the AAM and the Fair Cricket Campaign, the tour was called off on 22 May.

In 1970, together with Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) and the Fair Cricket Campaign, the AAM won a big victory by forcing the Cricket Council to cancel the South African cricket tour of England and Wales. This leaflet lists the tour fixtures and reproduces a poster that played a big part in mobilising opposition to the tour.

This leaflet advertised a march to Lords cricket ground to protest at the first game of the Springbok cricket tour planned for the summer of 1970. It was expected to be the biggest demonstration ever organised by the AAM. The demonstration did not take place because the tour was called off on 22 May.

In the early 1970s the Ruskin College Kitson Committee organised an annual march from Oxford to London over the Whitsun holiday. The group campaigned for the release of political prisoner David Kitson, a member of the trade union DATA, who was serving a 20-year sentence in South Africa. This leaflet publicising the march was printed just before the cancellation of the 1970 Springbok cricket tour.

Anti-apartheid protesters at the Surrey Grass Court Tennis Championships in Surbiton, Surrey on 11 June 1970. They were protesting against the participation of a South African player in the tournament.

The Springbok rugby tour of Australia, June–August 1971, met with huge protests all over the country. The first two games, played in Adelaide and Perth, were disrupted by students. In Sydney, members of the building workers trade union tried to saw down the goalposts. Queensland’s provincial government declared a month-long State of Emergency in response to the protests. Because of the scale of the demonstrations, the Springbok cricket tour, scheduled for September 1971, was called off. This badge was produced by the British AAM to show its support for the protests.